Hobart All Japanese Day: 24th of January, 2021

It's been a while since there was an all-Japanese car show, so it was great that local car fan AJ showed a bit of nous and organised one via Facebook. Held on the Queen's Domain, five minutes' drive from Hobart's CBD, it was well attended and attracted a good-sized collection of cars from the Home of the Rising Sun, including this magnificent - and sadly now all too rare - Series 1 RX7.

On a day when too many RX7s was barely enough, it was fabulous to also see this pristine Series 3. It's a local car, seen reasonably frequently and always looks perfect! It'd be hard to imagine a better combination of originality and mods, with its front and rear spoilers, BBS wheels and fat exhaust.

Kawaii is Japanese for adorable or cute, apparently.

This car is "super-cute," according to the windscreen sticker.

As far as I know, these earlier Sylvia / 200SXs only ever came to Australia as "grey imports," usually via Western Australia for some reason (different registration rules, perhaps?). This one looked really good, which is a bit uncommon, unfortunately, as the majority of them seem to have been mercilessly flogged as drift cars and pretty much destroyed. Even the newer versions - the ones that were officially imported into Oz - are quite rare these days but are said to be one of the last great rear-wheel-drive Japanese coupes.

Nice Nardi wheel!

Thanks, Ms Grimshaw. We are indebted.

And while we're on the subject of great rear-wheel-drive coupes, it seems to me that the Skyline filled a gap in the market that Ford Australia and Holden stupidly left open when they respectively dropped the Falcon hardtop, and the Monaro and Torana two-doors. No chance that's ever going to change now!

It is interesting, though, that Toyota / Subaru have recognised that there's a RWD craving to be satisfied (their 86 and BRZ twins) plus the former's new Supra, and that even Korean carmaker Kia have stepped up with their very, very potent Stinger. Of course, Nissan have always kept true to the format; their performance Skylines and Z-cars are absolute mainstays, with the new 400Z taking significant styling cues from the late 60s / early- to mid-70s 240Z.

Did you enjoy this post? If so, why not check out the rest of the uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au site? There are stacks and stacks of classic, sports and performance vehicles, as well as heaps of motor sports events and car shows, too.

U M P H

(uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.)

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